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Over two years in the making, the refurbishment of Royton Town Hall was completed earlier this year. Part of the refurbishment was the restoration of 3 Lincrusta designs undertaken by Frank Holmes Fine Décor; Frank, an approved installer and restorer, and his wife Amanda.
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“Two heritage Lincrusta designs had been re-discovered, hidden for decades, above a suspended ceiling,” Frank explained. “These were potentially the oldest known surviving examples of Lincrusta we were aware of.”
Frank Holmes Fine Décor worked with multiple agencies including Oldham Council, Kepczyk Pearce Sanderson Architects, Handforth, Cheshire, and the project was overseen by Seddon Construction, Bolton.
“The room had previously been divided to create a connecting corridor and an office, with the second Lincrusta design remaining in the ‘office’ side only. The top-most frieze was actually a ceiling paper that had been cut down. Below that was a botanical/floral wallpaper design. There was also a representation of oak panelling from a later date,” said Amanda, who specialises in archival research.
Frank said: “Sadly, after our first visit, storm damage and water ingress took place and there were holes from the removal of the suspended ceiling. However, in November 2023, with the suspended ceiling down, I carefully salvaged some historical Lincrusta sections before other building renovations began
Amanda added: “We identified both patterns from a surviving Lincrusta-Walton trade catalogue from the1880s, which also contains designs by Dr Christopher Dresser, a renowned industrial designer in the Arts & Crafts era. Lewis Foreman Day, George C Haite, Owen W Davis, were among other well-known designers of Lincrusta, along with their contemporaries in the decorative art styles within the Aesthetic Movement.”
Frank said: “Lower down the wall there was a later, oak-grained Lincrusta design, ‘Linenfold’, which was introduced to the current Lincrusta collection in the 1950s.
This representation of oak panelling had been created with the help of master craftsman Ernest Dobson of Burnley, Lancashire, around 1950. Dobson was “probably the most knowledgeable teacher of Graining and Marbling of the 20th Century” according to the book The Life and Times of Ernest Dobson, Grainer, Marbler, Decorative Painter by John Fleming and Terry Taylor, published in 2006.
While Frank and Amanda had been excited to identify the two heritage wallpapers there was more to come. When Frank cleaned several pieces of the floral wallpaper, he was astonished to discover old Lincrusta-Walton trademarks on the reverse.
Amanda explained: “There was the pattern number – 58 – and a date: November 2, 1891. We think that was the production date, as Lincrusta still stamp this on their wallpapers today. From this information we deduced that the Lincrusta installation at Royton Town Hall likely dates from late 1891- early 1892. Discovering the date stamps and original Lincrusta-Walton trademarks on this project was a first, and new information for the Lincrusta archives.”
Intrigued, Frank and Amanda carried out further research. Help from Bo Sullivan, a fellow Lincrusta enthusiast in the US, led them to the US Patent Office record for this floral wallpaper design.
Amanda said: “This named the designer as Albert Leisel, a German immigrant who lived in New York. He most likely worked for F R Beck & Co, the US manufacturer of Lincrusta. The date of the patent is August 12, 1884.”
Frank cleaned and stabilised the original pieces of Lincrusta. He then used them to produce moulds of each heritage design. From these he handmade 75 replica panels in total to make the repairs and reinstate the Lincrusta wallpaper friezes around the entire room at the town hall. The ‘Lincrusta room’ restoration was completed this Summer.
Article thanks to Amanda Holmes
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